03 - Whimsy - Photobook
2023



Whimsy

a photobook experiment
self-published
first edition 50

printed at 小器印物所
in Shanghai,China
2023While organizing thousands of images taken between 2019 and 2022 with my phone, I noticed that what I chose to document, were the trivial things —— objects, reflections, shadows.

Often, while walking through the city, I feel as though I’m dreaming. Everything exists in the obscure space between familiarity and strangeness, and I am tiptoeing at the edge of the veil. Places lose their names. Scenes dissolve into each other, yet the details sharpen.

Looking back on these images, I realize how the pandemic backdrop cannot be ignored. Because I couldn’t leave the country, they held my memories across different places in China. And they made me aware of what I always return to: the trivial, the delicate, the hush of light and form, the kind of beauty that doesn’t demand attention but rewards it.

Through observation, I made a space where time felt both real and suspended — like a dream just vivid enough to remember.


在整理手机里2019年至2022年之间的照片时，我发现自己记录下的，大多是些微不足道的东西——反光，影子，碎了的地砖，墙上斑驳的痕迹。

走在城市中，我常有一种恍惚的梦境感。周围的事物漂浮在熟悉与陌生之间，我像是在一层轻纱的边缘试探前行。地点失去了名字，场景相互融合，但细节反而变得分明。

现在回看这些照片，我意识到疫情的背景变得无法忽略。因为无法出国，它们承载了我在中国国内各地的记忆。也让我意识到，我始终在寻找那些微小的、脆弱的、不求存在感却总能被发现的美。

在观看中，我为自己造出一个空间——时间既真实，又被悬置着，像是一场恰好清晰到可以被记住的梦。